In thinking £70 for a prescription is a joke!

[buggyRunner]

Dp has private health care as part of his job package. He is seeing a doctor (mh problems) on this and is on anti depressants (v low dose).

He gets charged differently in each different pharmacy- tesco quoted £70 for his prescription which he decined shopped about and got from boots in the end for £26.

How come you have to pay so much? Were British and England based btw.

the difference will to be with which make of the drug it is - cheaper one will be a generic make I'd imagine. Also there is a mark up put on by the pharmacist

I live in Ireland where you just pay for the drug at the price the pharmacist charges. Prices always vary. Sometimes even in the same place

When you get a private prescription you pay the cost of the medicines and then the pharmacist's dispensing fee. Depending what 'brand' they have on the shelf to supply you with, whether they bought it at discount, and their mark up will depend on the final cost.

Generally NHS prescriptions are good value - I regularly prescribe an inhaler that costs about £35 and lasts a month with standard useage. Most people pay £7.40 (due to increase to £7.65 on 1st April) so they're getting a good deal really.

Mind you saying that I have no idea why you'd want to pay full price when you live in Britain!!!

I do recall when my dad am I happened to have be prescribed the same anti-biotic (he's in Britain) and there was a 30 pound difference.

It was then he started to view the NHS in a new light (that and the fact he discovered there's also a ?100 charge for A&E here)

In my experience of private healthcare the specialist will write to the GP to tell them what to prescribe and you then get an NHS prescription. They have always offered to do that for me.

If the NHS isn't good enough for you and DH, then neither are the NHS prescription arrangements and charges either IMHO.

GP is not under any obligation to write script given to you privately, you can ask but it is not guaranteed. It is at his/her discretion and should only be done if they agree with patient going to a private dr and the drug is something they consider reasonable under the circumstances.

People should appreciate the NHS more IMO. I have a relative abroad, her drug bills are horrendous and there seems to be do rhyme or reason to what is used whereas the NHS works to evidence based standards.

Dh had a private prescription for diazepam, he was dreading the cost. Suprisingly it cost 3.50, less than half the Nhs cost. It got me thinking about the real cost of drugs. The nhs may be overcharging for many many drugs when it uses one flat rate.

flibbertywidget Yes... having to pay double for HRT because it has two hormones in the same pack shocked me too. You were lucky to get 3 months worth on one prescription though... I am only given one month (one card) at a time, so that around £15 a month. I've gone and bought a pre-paid card now.

MixedBerries - private healthcare takes the pressure off the NHS. The private specialists work in the NHS and fit private work around their NHS work by working longer hours, not by skiving off and working privately during their NHS contracted hours. Private healthcare is not in some way stealing from the NHS. The advantages of private healthcare tend to be shorter waiting lists and longer appointments. Private specialists often still have waiting lists because they only have a limited time to do private work so can only see a certain number of private specialists. In this case it is part of the OP's DH's job package as they recognise that it is cheaper to provide healthcare than to have employees on long term sick leave waiting for the NHS to provide for them. As a result most GPs are more than happy to make private referrals (for one thing the care doesn't come out of their budget and they can therefore get more specialist care for their patients in total) and private specialists will refer back to themselves in the NHS where appropriate (I have been offered this where I was having private care to rectify poor NHS care and I didn't want to go back to the NHS hospital but was self-funding private care). Similarly GPs are willing to give NHS prescriptions resulting from private care as they know the consultants and know that they same prescription would come back to them but a couple of months later if the patient had waited for NHS care. This is the reality of the private-NHS relationship and I am sure that the OP and her husband who is suffering from MH problems are fascinated by your opinion.

breatheslowly, I'm more than aware that the NHS isn't perfect. I paid for private care for 3 years for MH problems as I got no-where on the NHS. But, the nature and ethos of the NHS is that all drugs are charged for equally on prescription. If one isn't willing to wait like all the other plebs, then one must pay the charges.

Whether that's right or wrong is another matter. MH problems do not get the recognition they deserve anywhere.

And NHS workers skive off? That's interesting. Like all those other public sector workers who demand things like a living wage and a pension?

My son is on hydrolysed infant formula. If we had to pay it would be in the region of £500 per month. Thanks to the NHS it's free. That's not to mention the 4 x creams he has, 1 x bath additive, 1 x antihistamine, 1 x antacid, 1 x anti-reflux and the gaviscon. All of which would add up to (I'm guessing here) £800+ including the milk. I am very grateful to be living in a country where healthcare is free at the point of delivery.

I am slightly at those saying antibiotics (eg amoxycillin) is expensive. Whenever I need it my gp writes a private script and if I get it at the local pharmacy it's about £5, if I go to Tesco it's more like £2/3.

Mixedberries - I didn't say they were skiving off - I said they weren't skiving off! I don't see what it has to do with the demands of public sector workers demanding a living wage and a pension. That is just a non sequitur.

I don't see the benefit for anyone using the NHS/private system as it stands suffering for an extra few months just to get the same outcome and to add to the NHS waiting list, so bumping down the list people who don't have the option of going privately. And the reality is not "one must pay the charges" as NHS GPs are usually very happy to provide an NHS prescription ( as Tranquilidade said is is at their discretion) as they usually know the consultant and know that this is exactly the same prescription that they would be writing a few months later if you had joined the NHS waiting list.

It was standard procedure for the private psychaitrist I saw a couple of years ago to write a letter to your NHS GP asking them to prescribe X and Y. You just drop it into reception at the GPs surgery and pick it up a couple of days time when they've had time to print out the green form and sign.

But wrt your actual question, I think YABU to call £70 a joke. It's just what it costs. Anti depressants are dead expensive. This is why I love the NHS!

Actually, ButtonMoon, I did pay £25 for Amoxycillin....at Boots, about a year ago. Not in the habit of making things up.

Shame people don't realise that this is because healthcare IS expensive, just because the patient doesn't usually have to pay doesn't mean nobody picks up the bill.

Reading this I am pleased I don't live in Ireland, the way Ds gets through inhalers and his other asthma meds he would soon have me bankrupt!

It's nice to read people defending the NHS which obviously has its faults, the number of people who dont realise they would be in a pickle without it is remarkable.

I run an emergency dental session on a Sunday where people pay the NHS fee of £17 for an appointment no matter how much work we have to do. The majority of them still say it's expensive.

AIBU that I think that's good value? How much would a plumber cost? Or even a private dentist? AND we have a number of people who ring to book a place (max 10 appointments) and then don't turn up!

CrockoDuck - Are you sure it was amoxicillin and not a different antibiotic from the penicillin group. Some are far more expensive although the only thing I can imagine costing £25 is Amoxicillin sachets which are far more expensive than the caps.

As for the £70 cost it would depend on the drug, the strength and the quantity.

Having a low strength drug does not always make it cheaper, if a low strength is rarely used compared to a high strength, they may cost more due to the increased manufacturing costs of making a smaller quantity.

How come you have to pay so much? Were British and England based btw.

Because you are buying something. If you looked at the price of bread in Tesco, a convenience store and Waitrose you would find a difference.

my GP did a housecall - came out to me. Iwas so terrified how much he was going to charge me!

Ended up with telling me I was OK - I wasn't had to go to a&e that night ?100 - 5 days on a trolly - then charge ?75 a night once I got onto a ward

my gp charged me ?55 to wite out a repeat perscription! Thankfully I am lucky that my essential script only costs ?15.10 per month.

On the anti-bs front Button - I usually pay in and around ?20 - DH paid ?45 for his last load (liquid can'tdo tablets) and I tend to pay abot ?14 for the children's

single packets of amoxocillin (the sort you have to get with dental work) are ?12 per dose. Ouch!!